how to make mago lassi

This is a little treat, i will show you how to make Mango lassi. There are 2 ingredients:

Natural Yogurt
Mango Juice

To make mango lassi add half or 1/3 yogurt to half or 2/3 mango juice into a blender and turn on for 5-10 seconds.

put it into a glass and enjoy. wala

FOOD

The food served in the Mela is massive. From curry dishes that you never knew existed to drink from Lasi ( a drink made from milk and yogurt).

When you walk past the dozens of stalls all you could smell are the different herbs in the pots and the sauces going right up your nose that want to make you sneeze.

Bradford Mela

http://www.melanet.eu/pages/melas/images/063.jpg

Okay know some news from Bradford, the biggest news every year is that of Bradford mela it attracts thousands of people from all over the UK and is the biggest mela that happens in Europe.



This is a bit of a taster of the event, next i will look at what happens their and break it down it diffrent blogs such as food, music, people and when it will happen next etc.

1 million refugees

This is a short clip to show how many refugees have been made due to the attacks by the US. It is something that is happening daily and on a big scale.

Some figures

These are some figures from 10th of june to Dec 22, 2008.

10-Jun-2008 US Drone Attack on Mohmand
12-Jun-2008 US coalition releases video of Pakistan air strikes
15-Jun-2008 US. Missile strike kills one in S Waziristan
1-Sep-2005 Suspected U.S. drone attack in Pakistan kills six villagers
15-May-2008 Suspected US drone attack on Damadola
3-Sept-2008 Pakistan reacts with fury after up to 20 die in ‘American’ attack on its soil
5-Sep-2008 Drone plane’s air strike kills six in North Waziristan
8-Sep-2008 More killed in another US drone attack in Pakistan
12-Sep-2008 Pakistani fury as suspected US drone attack kills 12
18-Sep-2008 Seven killed in U.S. missile strike in South Waziristan
1-Oct-2008 US drone ‘kills six’ in Pakistan
16-Oct-2008 Five killed in US drone attack in Pakistan: officials
23-Oct-2008 US drone attack kills 10 militants
27-Oct-2008 U.S. drone attack kills 20 in Pakistan
29-Oct-2008 US Artillery firing on Angoor Adda
31-Oct-2008 Al Qaeda militant said killed in U.S. missile strike
17-Nov-2008 Pakistan says new U.S. drone attack kills at least 10
7-Nov-2008 Suspected U.S. missile kills 10 in Pakistan
13-Nov-2008 12 people killed by another cross-border American raid
19-Nov-2008 Missile fired by US drone kills five in Bannu
Nov. 21, 2008 Suspected US missile strike kills five
Nov. 29, 2008 US strike in North Waziristan kills 3
Dec. 5, 2008 US Predator hits al Qaeda target in North Waziristan kills 3
Dec. 11, 2008 US strike in South Waziristan kills 7
Dec. 15, 2008 US Predator strikes in North Waziristan
Dec 22, 2008 Eight dead in as missile hit northwest Pakistan

source: http://www.war-on-pakistan.info/home/attack-watch

Past attacks

On 3rd September 2008 American special forces soldiers launched an attack on Angoor Adda in to Pakistan killing innocent men, women and children.

However the news was not reported in the main stream news outlets until the news became to old to broadcast, how ironic is it that when a free country is attacked it is not reported however if it was a western country the news is instance and keeps on rolling for many weeks as news.

It is what it is. This was the reality 2 years ago, almost daily attacks by us troops into Pakistan happened and their are to many to report. Just to show that it is still happening in the next post i will show the latest news.

Pakistan under attack by America?

This is the area of Pakistan that has seen the most recent attacks by both Pakistan Army and the united states of America. A couple of years ago it was impossible for any country to violate another countries airspace, however in recent years the US has seen it as a legitimate target to attack Pakistan.

It goes against all the Nome’s that have been played in the international arena of a sovereign country to defend it’s self. I will look at most of the attacks that have been done against Pakistan I recent months from news sources such as the BBC.

NEWS

I have covered my journey to Pakistan in detail i believe. I will next look at the latest news coming from Pakistan and highlight the daily news from Pakistan and Bradford from the past and present.

So keep a close eye on this new blog.

It was the local lads that were cheeky like shit, they had some mad cricket skills and all day they just played cricket or football. We had some good matches but we almost always lost in cricket but we always won in footy.

I remember once the local village close by had a footy match with us and we killed them something like 25-2 that was a good day. A few weeks had passed and the holidays was coming to an end.

We got most of our shopping done from Mirpur but we also went to Rawalpindi, next I will talk about how to shop in Pakistan, it is nothing like the experience in England or any were and the fun you have man it’s a good laugh.

FIRST DAYS

After coming back from Rawalpindi we came to Mirpur. The only thing me and my brother wanted to do was get to the shops and buy the cheap cigs. what we came across in Mirpur we can only describe in 1 word “ wicked”. believe me or not you have seen nothing unless you have seen natural land beauty.

Living all our lives in a city we never knew that Pakistan looked like this, we though it was going to stink, poverty every were and crap roads. I am telling you it was none of that, they was a water well close by, with country side and big house and the roads were clean.

We decided from that moment we were going to give Pakistan a chance. The next couple of days was involved travelling from cousins houses and meeting them. We did not know one of them but at the end we became close friends.

Mirpur

http://alfatihoun.edaama.org/Al%20Fatihoun/Galleries%20Files/Kashmir/Kashmir%2001/images/A%20mosque%20in%20F1%20sector%20of%20Mirpur%20AJK.jpg



It time for me to tell you a little about the city were we live in Pakistan. It’s called Mirpur, sick place people to live and go on holiday. It’s on the border between Pakistan and India and one time (American pie line) their was a massive war in Mirpur between the 2 countries that almost destroyed the city.

However luckily the Pakistan Army stopped the advance of the Indian army only a couple of miles away. Man to this day when ever I go back I can still see the massive holes in the ground left by the artillery in some places out side of Mirpur.

Well that was the war and a couple of more followed but still that place is unstable and to this day people are still fighting over that land. The next part of the journey was long.

Misconception

Their is huge misconception that pakistan is a islamic country. It is NOT. You might say what is waqas talking about but this is a basic fact. They is no country in the world today that is a Islamic country, yes muslims live their but the countries are eighther Communist, nationalist or inspirred by some other ideology.

Pakistan has 2 main parties the Pakistan Peoples Party (ppp) and the pakistan muslim league both have been in power and both have used the money of Pakistan for they own self.

The current government has previously been in power and was corrupt then and what can i say make your own judgement.

This funny video by Geo news (pakistan's biggest news channel) shows political corruption in a funny way, but it is the reality.




Have a look at tell me what you think sorry it's in Urdu but i think you get the message.

pakistan the basic facts

The first thing i was meant to do was tell you a bit about Pakistan. Well here are some facts.

A bit of a background for Pakistan.

*Officially the islamic republic of Pakistan.
*Pakistan means " land of pure".
*Created in 14 August 1947 .
*Founder of pakistan is M. Ali Jinnah.
*Official language Urdu.
*Population in 2008 was 165.9 million
*Currency rupees.

These are the basic facts about the country of Pakistan. in the next blog i will look at the basic politics of Pakistan and talk more about my travel there.

50p cigs

50p 50p 50p 50p 50p 50p 50p 50p 50p 50p 50p. I think i was starting to cry when i heard how much the Goldleaf cigarettes were for. At first they felt a bit weird compered to B&H but after a while they tasted like the best cigs in the world.

who ever smokes and i say this with sadness will know that a pack of cigs are to expensive in the U.K. a pack of B&H in 2001 was about £2.15 in 2008 it's about £2.90.We know that smoking is bad for your health and it is said that making cigs more expensive will make people think twice about smoking. however the tax that is given to the goverment by the tax companies are in the millions and if truly the government wanted to tackle smoking they would have banned the companies from making cigs, but that is another disscusion.

however some people call them throat burners but they 50p . i say it again 50p .

Pakistan transport

All you see are these massive decorated trucks which looked like some truck with women clothes on. You may be thinking what the hell is that, it the secret weapon of Pakistan, yes it a bus. it can carry up to 1000 people and if you move an inch your a goner.

luckily we had a AC van waiting for us at the airport which my uncle booked from Mirpur, A town which is north of Pakistan and near the border between India run Kashmir and Pakistan run Kashmir it's about 2 hours from the airport.

As we were going to Rawalpindi first, we noticed how packed the roads were and the sound of car horns make you jump and turn around. This experince was one of the best parts i enjoyed in Pakistan which involved traveling from one city to the other with service stops.

unlike in the U.K where service stops involve having McDonald or WHSmiths these service stops had, Samosa stop, corn on the stick stop, tea stops, pakistani sweets stops, mini hotels withcurries i had never seen in my life and the best thing cig shop.

The brilliant thing for me was if i had every item on that list once it would cost me a maximum of £3.

So far so good. I decided to become a chain smoker there and then.

finally arriving

Finally we had landed. after 8 hours we had finally we had landed. YES. If i knew what was going to happen i swear down i would have stayed on the plane.

After the normal check at any airport in the world we were waiting for our bags. In the start they were only a couple of bags coming then out of know were 500 bags then ours came along and we gripped the bags and put them on the half broken trolley's that were provided.

quickly all of us went towards the exit. pushing the half broken trolleys, then it hit us. you say what hit us. The heat people the heat. the heat in pakistan is not like Spain or Morocco. it's humid heat.

What tends to happen is after 5 minutes your head is killing and all you want is get under a AC.

Putting the heat to one side it felt good to come to a country were the people who you never meet in your life giving you hugs and saying always ASALAM ALAI KUM ( peace be with you) and ISHALLAHA ( god willing).

Next it was time to drive to Rawalpindi which is about 20 minutes from Islamabad airport, we had to go see relatives who my mum knew.

PIA (pakistan international airlines)

What a rip off. our tickets cost about £450 and the airplane, the food and the air hostess were crap, but it was the best eperience i had in a plane EVER!




The plane was okay it ran. it was a Boeing 707. It had about 9 million people in it. Man it's a site and a half. I can't describe it but you might get the image of 4 million Pakistani aunties, 4 million Pakistani Uncles, half a million British Pakistani 2 pac's and half a million British Pakistani young women. man it was brilliant.




This is how it looks from the inside not bad, but imagine 9 million British Pakistani in it. AND ONLY ONE TELLY, AND TWO TOILETS.


These women look sweet but man .... what can i say... just put it this way they don't see 9 million people they see 9 million goats..... goats you say.... yes just feed them and move on .

But man the flight lasted 8 hours but it was one of the best times i had on a plane. I have been to Morocco and Turkey and the plane journey is a different experience. but a plane to Pakistan has it's own experience.

getting the visa

it was time to get the visa sorted out. man this was load of PC. i mean to go to Pakistan i needed a visa.

why did we need a visa i asked my dad. he tried to explain " basically in the 1970's Zia-ul-Haq who was the general Pervez Musharraf of his time became angry at the U.K because they wanted people coming from Pakistan to have visa's so he decided that people who wanted to come to pakistan needed visa. it's a man thing.

what the......???????

This was going to be a long holiday.

bradford and getting ready to go to pakistan

The first time I ever went to the country my dad came from was in 2001. I say my dad’s country because I knew nothing about it and I was born in Britain and think of my self as a British Muslim.

Pakistan? what did I know about Pakistan nothing really. All I knew about Pakistan was what I heard from my family and friends.

The day my dad told us we were going Pakistan I was about to go to school, I was in year 9 then about 14 years old and the summer holidays were about to come.

After school couple of my mates went to the park to smoke which we did mostly after school because that was the best time to have a smoke and whilst we were talking I told
them I was going Pakistan.

Mobeen or mob as we knew him said “what your going back home bruv, you know you have to shit in a hole and wash your ass with water”.

All of us started to laugh of our asses but inside I knew he was chatting sense and I knew I will have to make a excuse of not going “back home”.

After about a couple of cigs and chatting about who was going to win the premiership, the new Subaru car and who was the fittest bird in the school we decided to catch the bus and go home.

My brother and sister had come back from school and all we were talking about was how we could make excuses of not going to Pakistan. To this day I say my argument was the best which was:

“ how could we go to a country where they shit in a hole”.

After talking for ages my eldest sister who is a nerd to this day said we should just go after all it is a free holiday.

After about 2 weeks of playing football every day and buying separates cigs the time had come to go “back home”.

My mum started to pack all the bags about 200 suite cases literally. The way it works is that on a Pakistan plane each person is allowed to take 45 kg suite cases. I had a last night with the boys and they made a list of what I should bring back for them cheap asses gave a couple of pounds and said I should bring back the change.